SCENOGRAPHY

Cellardoor (2012)

Gavin Krastin often collaborates as scenographer for his long-time partner, choreographer and performer Alan Parker. Novelist J. R. R. Tolkien has described the phrase “cellar door” as especially beautiful due to its sonic quality and rhythmical sound. Using the euphonies of “cellar door” as a departure point, Cellardoor agitates and critiques conventional western notions of beauty as an imposed strict regulatory system. The performance design treads the cusp of the beautiful-ugly as it draws from the Italian renaissance, the colonial era and pop-culture.

Cellardoor was performed at the Dance Umbrella 2012 (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the National Arts Festival 2013 (Grahamstown, South Africa).